Cascade Falls Trail

Perhaps my favourite place that I visited on my American road trip last year was Lake Tahoe. I say perhaps because there were so many fantastic places along the way and I would happily revisit all of them but I really want to go bake to Lake Tahoe to explore much more than the couple of days we had there allowed.

The 9 hour drive from Utah was memorable for many reasons, the stunning scenery from the Great Salt Lake, the salt flats and the seemingly endless desert as well as the sat nav instruction when I got onto i80 saying "stay on this road for 450 miles". At the end of the journey I was greeted by snow capped mountains, lush forests and a beautiful expansive lake. 

On the only full day of the visit I headed up to Cascade Falls and hiked the cascade Falls Trail. It was an easy walk to begin with but after an easy level path initially it became steeper and narrower and in the early summer it got hot very quickly. The views along the way were absolutely stunning and at the end of the trail I bathed my feet in the icy water of the falls, probably the coldest water I have stood in, but so refreshing before heading back  down the path to the car.

The drive from Lake Tahoe to San Francisco was also spectacular and it would have been great to have more time to explore places along the way. I really hope that I get an opportunity to go back some time but for now I will enjoy a few of the shots I took on the trail.

Cascade Falls Trail

Cascade Lake and Lake Tahoe

Dead wood

Western wallflower (a member of the mustard family)

California Garden

 One of the things I love about traveling to new places is discovering different wildlife. During my trip to the USA last year I stayed in San Martin, California and in the garden there was a host of different birds, insects and lizards. I could have spend so much time just in the garden but with so much to explore and so little time I didn't have the time to do more than get a few snaps. Here are the best of them.

House finch

Acorn Woodpecker

Brewers Blackbird (?)

Northern Mockingbird

Californian Towhee

Hooded Oriole (female)

Hooded Oriole (Male)

Anna's Hummingbird

Coast Range Fence Lizard

Bucket List

 It may seem like a strange thing to include visiting the Botallack tin mines in Cornwall in my bucket list of sites to see but is has long been an ambition of mine to go there. Not because the landscape was made famous by TV shows like Poldark but because of the real history of the place has always fascinated me; the hardships of the men who put their lives at risk deep under ground, the families who supported them and the harsh conditions they endured.  The site is managed by the National Trust and is genuinely a national treasure.

Although I was only in Cornwall for a few days I was pretty determined that I would get here and I was so pleased that I did. After visiting Land's End which was fun (watching a shoal of Tuna feeding down below the headland) it was also too commercialised and far too busy for my liking, a short drive up to Botallack was definitely the right move. For a start it was much more peaceful, there was hardly anyone else around, and the scenery was even more impressive. The industrial architecture was stunning and it was quite an adventure finding the right angles to photograph from. I got into a bit of trouble as I clambered up and down the slopes but the slight risks I took seemed insignificant compared to those taken by the men and women who made a living here many years ago.

I visited at the end of a sunny but blustery day at the beginning of October and I tried to imagine how challenging it must have been when the weather conditions were less favourable, or even quite hostile as I am sure they can be on such an exposed landscape.

Below is a small selection of the images I took on the day (I have more that I may share another time). I chose to do mostly black and white images because they are more dramatic than the colour images and I felt they were more evocative of the period when this place was in use. Feel free to leave a comment and let me know what you think.

St Michael's Mount

Just one image for today and for this I am going back to my Cornwall trip in 2024.

I have experimented a little with this view of St Michael's Mount, I quite like it but let me know what you think. I remember it as being quite a sunny day on and off and I enjoyed eating a delicious pasty from Philps' bakery in Marazion whilst looking across at this view. Although it was mostly sunny there were moments of cloudy weather too and even a little mist on the mount itself, and so I have edited the original image to bring out some of the drama in the sky.

I would like to have time to go back and do some long exposure shots and maybe get some reflections as well as maybe some night time shots with the mount illuminated, but who knows when that might be possible. In the meantime I will reflect on some of my photos and order some pasties from Philps.

 

More Macro - Hoverflies and Droneflies

As I mentioned in a post a couple of days ago I had been to RSPB Burton Mere however rather than photographing birds I ended up doing a spot of macro photography, which had been my back up plan. A few people gave me odd glances as I crouched down by the side of the path, a few asked what I had seen and shrugged when I explained I was photographing bugs but then one couple surprised me by identifying some of the hoverflies  giving me their scientific and common names and suggesting where I might spot others along the way.

I was really impressed and grateful, I explained that other than knowing they were different species of hoverflies I had no idea what I was looking at. They said that they had assumed I knew because of the interest and care I was taking in photographing them and they stayed a few moments longer to share some of their knowledge. I will probably forget most of what they told me but I will try at least to remember the common names and look more closely in future at the different varieties I see.

Hoverflies and Droneflies are really important pollinators, they have markings that make them look a lot like bees or wasps, some, as you will see below are covered in fine hairs like bees but they are all harmless to humans, they cannot bite or sting and they have no venom. Their colouring is purely to scare off predators. Like flies they have one pair of wings whereas bees and wasps have two pairs. As adults they feed exclusively on nectar and pollen while their larvae tend to be voracious predators eating aphids although some species do eat plants or decaying matter. Whatever their diet hoverflies should be welcomed  9even encouraged) into your gardens.

Sphaerophoria scripta (sometime called Twister Hoverfly)

A bonus image of a Plume Thistle

Sphaerophoria scripta

Helophilus pendulus - Footballer Hoverfly (sometimes Sun Fly)

Eristalis - Dronefly

Episyrphus baleatus - Marmalade Hoverfly

Sphaerophoria scripta - Twister Hoverfly

 

Ugly Bug Ball

 In contrast to the beautiful dragonfly images I shared in my last post I have opted to share a selection of  images that many of you will consider grotesque and by all means if that is how you feel about flies then perhaps you should look away now. 

If you choose to stick with me then be prepared for a close look at three different species of flies that I spotted recently.

Flies are almost invariably seen as pests; that buzzing nuisance around the house or that irritating presence at a picnic, and given some of their habits they are understandably considered dirty and unwelcome. However, if we stop to think about "what is the point of flies?" it becomes clear that these grotesque, dirty creatures play a vital role in the functioning of our whole ecosystem. 

They clean and recycle waste, breaking down organic matter and releasing nutrients back into the soil.

Flies are the second most important pollinators after bees. Without flies wildflowers and food crops would disappear. And a fascinating fact that I have found is that cacao trees are only pollinated by a specific group of midge flies so without flies there would be no chocolate, learning that I have become the biggest fan of flies!

Flies (and their larvae)are food food a huge variety of other insects, birds, mammals, amphibians, reptiles and fish so again they play an important role in the food chain.

Finally flies also play a significant role in scientific and medical advancement because fruit flies share almost 75% of human disease causing genes so they are an essential part of genetic and cancer research.

None of the above will make a fly welcome at a picnic or make it any less annoying as it buzzes around the house on a summer day however hopefully we can all respect the role they play.

Now to the photos; these are three different species of fly they are not pretty by any stretch of the imagination but they are fascinating and a closer look reveals some interesting detail so be brave and scroll down, and leave a comment to let me know what you think...

Tachinid fera

Painted Graphfly (graphomaya maculata)

Green Bottle Fly

Dragonflies

 I went to Burton Mere RSPB reserve thinking that with the promised good weather there would be some nice opportunities to observe and photograph some birds. I did see some Egyptian Geese, some other wildfowl, a Great White Egret and even a Peregrine Falcon as well as various waders. However the light was awful and photo ops were very limited so I had to change tack and switched out my long telephoto zoom lens for my 100mm Macro lens instead,

I got a few strange looks from other visitors to the reserve who were looking to the sky and across the reedbeds and scrapes as I was crouched down peering into the reeds and thistles along the edge of the path. A few stopped to ask what I had found and some even seemed interested when I said I was photographing bugs.

I managed to get some nice shots of some small pollinators which I can share another day but I am too excited about this selection to leave these images for another time.

It is quite late in the year to see dragonflies as in many places they are coming to the end of their life cycle but in various parts of the reserve there were still a few to be seen. The Common Darter which is in the last few pictures was actually the first one I was able to photograph as it was resting on a leaf in a secluded pond sheltered from the wind.  Those shots were taken using my long lens and  from a fair distance so they are not as sharp or detailed as perhaps I would like. They're pretty good all the same.

The images I am most pleased with are of course the Southern Hawker in the first selection. This is a female and I had been told by another photographer that he had seen her trying to lay eggs on a particular section of path. It was on my way back to the carpark so en route I paused at the spot her had mentioned and waited. Just as he said it wasn't long before this little beauty flew out of the reeds and started to try laying eggs between the planks on the path and other places nearby, and although it was quite wary of me at first, after a few minutes she seemed more relaxed and came to rest a couple of times so that I could get right in close with my macro lens. 

It was very windy at times so the reeds were constantly moving, as I have mentioned the light was poor and lying down on the walkway was quite uncomfortable but regardless of this challenges I am really happy to have managed to get these shots. I hope you like them as much as I do.

Southern Hawker

Common Darter

Cornish Memories

I had hoped to get out with my camera today but for various reasons I wasn't able to do so and as a result I felt a bit glum. As I am writing this I can see that it is now raining so perhaps I wouldn't have had such a great time anyway. To fill some time I decided to review a few old files and photos and I realised that I had a couple of folders that I have neglected so I have some work to do to sort through them. The first is a collection  of photos I took on a holiday in Cornwall at the end of September 2024. \9I can hardly believe that I have left them so long although I may have shared some mobile phone photos from that trip on Instagram and Facebook I don't appear to have done anything with this folder).

I had visited Cornwall briefly for a work trip a long time ago but I had never gone for leisure so I was really pleased to have an opportunity to go for a short break. I stayed in Newquay but travelled around a fair bit over the few days I was there.

These first two images were taken on Pentire Headland looking towards Fistral Beach. The conditions were a bit dull and overcast so I thought these images worked better in black and white. They are grasses which were growing on the top of an old stone wall.

These next few images are from St Michael's Mount. 

The cannon pointed towards Penzance, was one of many pointed in the same direction, I did wonder whether this was a sign of aggression towards the people of Penzance or a show of strength to ward off would be aggressors from the sea. 

I always like a nice sundial and this one definitely caught my eye. I originally shot this in black and white because I liked the way it looked in monochrome however when editing I actually wanted to bring out the colours in the sea and the stonework.

This last image was part of a "thing" I was doing with Lego minifigures, mostly using my phone's camera and you can see them all on my Instagram profile (Chipster_63), but here I have used my DSLR and I have kept it in black and white as shot. I have lots of minifigures that I like to pose in various locations to tell a story. In this image the figure represents me and has its own little camera and the image overall represents the time I spend taking pictures as well as being a little bit of fun.